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Things I want in a modern relational query language

https://sporks.space/2026/08/19/things-i-want-in-a-modern-relational-query-language/
18•zdw•20h ago

Comments

bastawhiz•24m ago
As a meta comment, I can handle code blocks without syntax highlighting, and I can handle code blocks that wrap. But both together with long comments just turn into line noise. There's no longer any useful visual signal for how to read them. On my phone the code blocks are simply impossible to meaningfully parse.
scythmic_waves•23m ago
Some overlap here with some of my favorite essays on why SQL is lacking:

https://www.scattered-thoughts.net/writing/against-sql

That particular post ends with a wish-list of items so it's the most similar to the OP. But there are others on the site that I quite enjoy (click on the home icon and search "SQL" on the page).

My personal take is that SQL will continue to reign for a long time because of the how monumental the task of replacing it is due to the inherent complexity of databases. LLMs make this worse because they're really good at translating prose to SQL. Now that it matters less how annoying SQL is to programmers, SQL will become more like assembly over time: something mostly computers write because it's complicated for humans to deal with directly. This is deeply ironic given that SQL was ostensibly designed to read like prose, i.e. to be easy for humans.

a2ff6eeb0•18m ago
This would have been interesting about a decade ago, but today AIs all know SQL, and I haven't written it myself in a while.

Since it seems like the quantity of training data dominates AI performance, and AI doesn't yet internalize experience with new tools, it seems like a bad idea to stray from the training set.

Obsessing over a language's syntax and semantics feels a little like debating whether you write assembly using AT&T or Intel syntax.

esafak•15m ago
Database engineers have to be the change they want to see and add support for newer query languages.
mcc1ane•8m ago
https://www.geldata.com/blog/we-can-do-better-than-sql

(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24106608, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19871051)

Malware infects Android-based automotive head unit firmware

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Sydney Marathon medal mistakenly depicts Munich stadium

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88•epestr•5h ago•56 comments

Things I want in a modern relational query language

https://sporks.space/2026/08/19/things-i-want-in-a-modern-relational-query-language/
18•zdw•20h ago•5 comments

To become a better writer, read as much as you can

https://nappertime.com/the-golden-rule-of-becoming-a-better-writer/
311•andsoitis•11h ago•206 comments

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144•userbinator•9h ago•57 comments

Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

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23•dredmorbius•37m ago•2 comments

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157•raybb•5h ago•79 comments

MartyPC is a cross-platform emulator of early PCs written in Rust

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155•boilerupnc•12h ago•55 comments

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417•felineflock•21h ago•171 comments

Death to px, long live ch

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22•Brajeshwar•1h ago•10 comments

Fast and Hard Code

https://lucumr.pocoo.org/2026/8/22/fast-hard-code/
81•tosh•9h ago•43 comments

JIT Compiling Code in 5μs

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123•zX41ZdbW•9h ago•78 comments

The Art and Beauty of Blade Runner (2015)

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135•cocacola1•14h ago•67 comments

Hister – A private, full content search index that you control

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422•auraham•4d ago•94 comments

ElevenLabs, TwelveLabs, ThirteenLabs

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typ.ing

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NanoGPT Speedrun Frontier

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Risk of transmission of amyloid β pathology via transfused blood products

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Iranian hackers shut down UK power plant for 4 days

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55•giuliomagnifico•5h ago•32 comments

How a Texas student blew the whistle on a rogue AI hacking attempt

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187•olalonde•2d ago•98 comments

ATProto spaces: A new extension to ATProto that enables non-public data

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160•grappler•2d ago•26 comments

NetBSD and my life (2005)

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2005/09/10/0000.html
139•gnyeki•20h ago•32 comments